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The Legacy & Challenge Story Update Threads have been revived! These are a fantastic group of threads where you can post every single one of your legacy or challenge story updates and shamelessly plug yourself! When you post your next legacy or challenge post, then feel free to post an update into the thread as well! And as if one plug isn't enough, at the end of the month someone will come along and post a big omnipost of all the updates that have been posted within the aforementioned month.The (Un)Official Legacy & Challenge Story Update Thread: TS3

So there’s this BARKC epidemic right now, and I desperately want in on it. However… the challenge is designed for TS2, and I can’t seem to find a TS3 ruleset anywhere. I could just play it in TS2, but my TS2 is vanilla, whereas I’ve spent years fixing TS3’s every downfall and modding it to my liking, and we’re just locked in an inseparable love-hate relationship at this point.

SO I’m trying to devise a modified ruleset for TS3. Sadly, I’m not very challenge-savvy (I’ve barely ventured outside of the traditional legacy) so I’m in a little over my head. If you’re in the same boat or if you’re just good at stuff and would like to contribute to a TS3 BARKC, I’d love to hear your ideas!

I have a Google doc here with my working rules. I would paste it here, but it’s full of tables and stuff that won’t translate well.

Here are the main kinks I’ve run into while translating this challenge:

Spoiler:

Careers: There are obviously some careers in TS3 that don’t exist in TS2, and vice versa. So I would need to come up with requirements and class restrictions for these extra careers. Also, some of the requirements can’t be met in TS3 (like Business: one additional spot for every level 10 business and business tycoon).

Rabbit Holes: Careers don’t require buildings in TS2, but they obviously do in TS3. So would I build each rabbit hole for free once the corresponding career is unlocked, or would I make a family (I guess the Royals) somehow pay for each one to be built? And (if I build them for free), do they count toward CAS points? Do they count toward the community lots for my Sim Multiplier?

Business Districts/Downtowns/Universities: These are all neighbourhood add-ons that don’t exist in TS3. (Well, university exists, but you don’t “add” them like you do in TS2.) These count heavily toward my Sim Multiplier, so what would I replace those potential points with?

Here’s what I’ve puzzled through so far:

Spoiler:

Careers: Rather than trying to translate all of the requirements from the TS2 version, I decided to replace ALL career requirements with those from the TS3 BACC. (The TS2 BARKC rules are derived from the TS2 BACC, so it makes sense to do the same thing here.) As for the class restrictions, I looked at equivalent or similar careers in TS2 and assigned the career to those classes (e.g. Paranormal = Ghost Hunter, Show Business = Film/Actor, Entertainment = Showtime Careers, etc.).

Rabbit Holes: I’m still pondering this one, but right now I have it so that a career rabbit hole is built FOR FREE when the first spot is unlocked in that career. This, I think, is the best equivalent to TS2, where no one has to buy a building in order for a career to be functional. However, families can (and should) invest in these rabbit holes as they earn money. That way we can adopt the Sim Multiplier system from the TS3 BACC as well:

+1 for first community lot+1 when 5 comm lots+1 per 5 additional comm lots+1 when first sim invests in a business+3 when 4 businesses have investors+5 when all 11 businesses have investors+2 when the first sim fully owns a business+6 when sims own 4 businesses+10 when all 11 businesses have owners

However, since the Royal Family is going to be pretty loaded and could probably afford to buy out the town singlehandedly, I’m going to say it’s probably best that Royals not be allowed to invest in rabbit holes. Does this make sense? This is the part I’m most unsure about.

Business Districts/Downtowns/Universities: Business Districts and Downtowns are pretty much irrelevant if we use the BACC scoring system. Universities would still be useful for some careers though. The TS3 BACC doesn’t include a rule for university, so I’m thinking I’d just use Chase’s rule - a family (likely the Royals) must spend $2,000,000 to build one, and sims must pay the owners $10,000 per semester to attend. I’m not sure about that second part, because in TS3 sims have actual tuition to pay. Maybe I’d just use familyfunds to put students’ tuition into the owners’ account?

Also: In the TS3 BACC, you can unlock a Bus Stop and an Airport. Basically, the bus stop allows your sims to travel on dry land (i.e. to boarding school) and the airport allows them to travel overseas (i.e. World Adventures destinations). I’d like to make a more old-fashioned equivalent of this somehow (maybe a train station and a sea port). If I did this, I think I would also make the bus/train station a requirement for university, even after the $2,000,000 has been spent. The train/bus requires 1,000 population. The airport/sea port requires 50,000 population OR $1,000,000 in contributions (not necessarily all from the same family).

It’s mainly the rabbit hole dilemma I’m concerned with right now, but if you see any other gaping holes, please feel free to mention them! I’d love to hear any changes/additions/suggestions you have in mind, regardless of which game you play or whether you've played a BARKC before.